Be Careful With New AdWords Device Bid Modifiers

Avoid the mistakes if you don’t have data from a multichannel tracking solution

With Google’s Device Bid Modifier rolling out recently, you can now adjust bids for individual devices in AdWords. Previously, you could only have a set bid for Desktop and Tablets, then use a percentage of bid modifier for smartphones. Perhaps most importantly, tablet is no longer in the same category as desktop.

However, when using device bid modifiers, it can be easy to make mistakes if you don’t have data from a multichannel tracking solution.

Google already covers – to some degree – cross device tracking and some conversion attribution reporting options beyond the last click, but this still may not reveal the big picture. Why is this? Well, for one, AdWords can’t attribute across search engines, nor can it attribute beyond Google Search Ads. A customer’s journey to purchase does not just involve multiple devices these days but also multiple digital channels – SEO, Email, Remarketing etc. So you may not have the true reflection of performance without this information.

In addition, if you do not take into account the many ways a user can engage (and may be more likely to engage on a non-desktop device) with your site, you’re risking undervaluing the device spend. To actually take this into account, you need to track these engagements against your traffic.

With the introduction of a combined multichannel tracking solution you will be able to get the insight you need. You might be able to get these insights from sources like Google Analytics, but we can provide these services to you as well with our in-house multichannel attribution software.

As an example, there is received wisdom that tablet performs worse than mobile and desktop, and on the basis of last click tracking or limited cross-device tracking, this may appear to be true. But once you can see how tablet users may later visit and buy via desktop on a different search engine, you may reassess the real impact of tablet traffic on top level sales. Without this data, you can’t know for sure whether or not you are setting your bids appropriately.

Ultimately, you don’t want to dive in and slash bids without knowing the full picture. Otherwise, you may hurt yourself without realizing.

To hear more about how multichannel tracking and ESV Analytics might help your digital marketing campaigns, tweet at us @ESV_Digital_UK or following us on LinkedIn.